![]() New logo of Raj Comics in English | |
Parent company | Raja Pocket Books |
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Status | Active |
Founded | 1986 |
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Country of origin | India |
Headquarters location | 330/1 Main Road Burari, New Delhi, India |
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Official website | www |
Raj Comics is an Indian comic book publisher based in New Delhi, India. It published a line of Indian comic books through Raja Pocket Books since its foundation in 1984 by Rajkumar Gupta, Manoj Gupta and Sanjay Gupta. [1] [2] Some of its most well known characters include Nagraj, Super Commando Dhruva, Bhokal, Doga, Parmanu, Tiranga, Bankelal, Shakti, Inspector Steel, Ashwaraj, Bheriya and Anthony. [3] Raj Comics is credited as being one of the leading comic book distributors in India. [4]
Raja Pockets initially published pulp-fiction books. They had a highly-successful run and published critically acclaimed authors like Surender Mohan Pathak, Ved Prakash Sharma, Anil Mohan and Raja. At their peak, the books sold up to 1 million copies each. While Rajkumar Gupta always had a passion for crime-thrillers, his sons Sanjay Gupta and Manoj Gupta started collection Indian and International Comics from an early age and were always thrilled with the idea of creating original Indian Superheroes. One evening, while discussing the same, Rajkumar Gupta walked in on the conversation of the two brothers and thus, Raj Comics was born.
The company mainly publishes four types of comics; medieval fantasy, horror, mystery, and superhero comics, with a predominant focus on superhero content. [5] [6] Their comics are usually published in Hindi, with only a few titles and special editions in English. It has produced close to 35,000 comics to date and has been read by people in India and abroad. [7] The company also publishes an online exclusive web series named Raj Rojana, with a new page uploaded every day.
Raj Comics publishes in multiple formats, which include e-book, print, and motion comics. [8] The company also sells hardcovers of their old and new comics, as well as bundled collections of their characters. [9]
In 2008, Raj Comics was the focus of a research project conducted through The Sarai Programme at CSDS's Sarai Media Lab. The resulting research was published as a free PDF on the Sarai website. [2]
Raj Comics was founded in 1986 by Raj Kumar Gupta, Sanjay Gupta and Manoj Gupta. It marked the era of the rise of Indian superheroes. Raj Comics's first superhero was Nagraj. Later, they launched other popular superheroes like Dhruva, Doga, Parmanu, and Tiranga.
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Raj Comics' roots span back to the 1980s. After extreme dedication and perseverance by the brothers and their father, Raj Comics was propelled to great heights and fame. Nearly every teenager spent their afternoons glued to the latest comic addition. In the early days of its inception, Raj Comics published mythological, mystery and adventure comics. In 1985, Manoj Gupta, fueled by his passion and craze for western superheroes, notably Phantom, came up with the idea of creating a superhero centered around snakes as he believed snakes held a religious and mythological significance in India. [11] Later, the team started working on the concept and finally created the Nagraj that we know today.
In 1997, an advertisement for Nagraj featuring Sonu Sood aired on TV. [12] During this era, Raj Comics reportedly sold over a million copies a year, making it one of the most widespread publications of that time period. It has sold more than 100 million copies since then.
![]() | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (May 2017) |
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Raj Comics has now expanded to multiple different publication streams, with TriColor and other various business entities taking venerable steps in penetrating the Indian book market. Ongoing discussions with studio heads have been disclosed to the public about the possibility of live feature films based on their comic universe. However, nothing has since come to fruition.
In 2015, Raj Comics released an Android app for the general public. It has since garnered a massive following and has an average rating of 4.5+ stars.
In 2017, Raj Comics released a concept trailer for Nagraj on its official YouTube channel. It has since garnered over 1.5 million views. [13]
In 2018, Raj Comics released a short feature film named Aadamkhor, partially self-produced and crowdfunded. It released on YouTube to critical acclaim by its audience. [14]
King Comics was a line of comics published through Raja Pocket Books. While the division was initially successful, its popularity declined and the line went defunct after only about 2–5 years of activity. It was intended that many of King Comic's characters would be merged into Raj Comics, but only a few characters such as Gamraj were merged. During its run the division published six monthly comics.[ citation needed ]
In 2010, Raj Comics celebrated its Silver Jubilee by launching the Kalpana-lok Awards to honor comics artists. Participants are nominated by editors at Raj Comics and can be voted on by readers and fans on the Raj Comics website.
In 2014, Anurag Kashyap had spoken about making a film on Doga—a vigilante killing machine in the style of Marvel Comics’ The Punisher—but the project was shelved after his Bombay Velvet flopped. [15] CEO Manish Gupta has had multiple ultimately unsuccessful meetings with prominent Bollywood industry personnel. In 2016, Raj Comics co-founder and studio head Sanjay Gupta said "Bollywood is yet to warm up to the idea of licensing comic book characters that come with detailed universes and visuals ready for the screen. We want to start with animated Web series first. We are expecting to make our first live-action film the year after.” [16] [17] In December 2017, Raj Comics organized special screening of their horror film Aadamkhor at Nagraj Janmotsav event, Delhi. Aadamkhor is based on comic of the same name published by Raj Comics in 1992. Raj comics released Aadamkhor on YouTube on 24 May 2018. [18]
In December 2019, Manoj Gupta said that he was in negotiations with Ranveer Singh to play Nagraj in a film produced by Karan Johar. [19]
Raj Comics are available in digital form through their android app. The Raj Comics official android app has reached over 100k+ downloads at the time of this article. Free Services: In 2017, Raj Comics started free comics from their android app.
Paid Services: Google Play in 2017. RC Android app crossed 100,000 downloads within 6 months of its launch. [20]
In 1996, delivered by the Delhi High Court under docket Raja Pocket Books (Plaintiff) v. Radha Pocket Books, Raj Comics won this intellectual property case with a ruling of "prima facie infringement of the plaintiff’s character." [21]
Chitrakatha are comics or graphic novels originating from India published in a number of Indian languages.
Nagraj is a superhero appearing in Indian comic books published by Raj Comics created in the late 1980s by Rajkumar Gupta. Nagraj first appeared in the comics Nagraj GENL #14 which was written by Parshuram Sharma and illustrated by Pratap Mullick.
Super Commando Dhruva is an Indian superhero appearing in comic books published by Raj Comics. The character, created by writer and illustrator Anupam Sinha, first appeared in GENL #74 Pratishodh Ki Jwala published in April 1987 and since then, has appeared regularly in many issues published by Raj Comics. Super Commando Dhruva, whose complete name is Dhruva Mehra, is additionally referred to as Captain Dhruva by the cadets of his Commando Force.
Bhokal is a superhero appearing in Raj Comics. Most stories are based on dark fantasy with blood and gore. Bhokal was created by Manoj Gupta and Sanjay Gupta.
Parmanu is an Indian superhero published by Raj Comics. His super powers include splitting into atoms and flying to travel from one place to other and to reduce or increase his own size. The character is inspired by Atom. Parmanu died in the Akhiri comic series, blasting himself in space to save earth.
Shakti is an Indian comic book character, one of a number of titles published by Raj Comics. Her special powers include fire and a third eye.
Bankelal is a fictional comic book character, that appears in comic books published by Raj Comics. He is a satirical character presented as a medieval "Hasya Samrat". The series is primarily humorous, though also incorporates elements of fantasy and horror.
Tulsi Comics was an Indian comics publisher in the late 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s, and was a division of Tulsi Pocket Books - founded by Indian writer and author Ved Prakash Sharma.
Superhero fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction examining the adventures, personalities and ethics of costumed crime fighters known as superheroes, who often possess superhuman powers and battle similarly powered criminals known as supervillains. The genre primarily falls between hard fantasy and soft science fiction in the spectrum of scientific realism. It is most commonly associated with American comic books, though it has expanded into other media through adaptations and original works.
Sanjay Gupta is an Indian comic book writer, editor, the studio head and Founder of Raj comics and is considered to be father of Indian Superheroes.
Anupam Sinha is an Indian comic book artist and writer, credited as the creator of the Raj Comics superhero Super Commando Dhruva. The BusinessWorld website said that Sinha revolutionised Indian comics with his work at Raj Comics.
Pratap Mullick was an Indian illustrator and comics artist. He was best known for illustrating Nagraj of Raj Comics which gained lot of popularity under him and was later handed to Anupam Sinha who made Nagraj an actual superhero. He worked for the Indian comic book series Amar Chitra Katha created by writer and editor Anant Pai. Mullick drew the first 50 issues of Nagraj from 1986 until 1995. He designed the comic-book character Supremo, who featured in a series published for two years in the 1980s.
Manoj Gupta is an Indian publisher, editor, and the President and Co-founder of Raja Pocket Books and its subsidiary Raj comics. He established the most popular and longest running comic book company Raj Comics together with his brother Sanjay Gupta. He co-created the characters Nagraj,Bankelal Doga, Bhokal, Yoddha etc. He introduced digital-colouring in Raj Comics back in the 1990s, making it one of the first Indian brands to use the technique. Some consumers partially credit their wildly explosive success to this technological increment.
Dhruva is a mythological character Hinduism and a personification of the pole star.
Tarun Kumar Wahi is an Indian comic book artist and writer. He is the chief writer for Raj Comics and creator of the superheroes Doga, Parmanu, Bheriya and several others.
Wahi is a Punjabi Khatri surname. According to Shyam Singh Shashi, they're related to the ancient clan of Bālhikas. They were found in Pindigheb, Rawalpindi in West Punjab.